Yet Untitled. Welby Thomas Cox, Jr.
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Author's Note:
The cover designed and painted by Welby Thomas Cox, Jr.
Welby Thomas Cox, Jr. aka Thomas Welby Cox
Library of Congress Copyright # TXu1-309-323, May 17, 2006 Cox, Jr. Welby Thomas, aka William Grayson Stall Yet Untitled
This is a work of historical fiction, based upon actual events, except for all known historical figures which the readers may well identify; names, places, dates and incidents pivotal to the writing of this book have been developed solely in the mind of the author Welby Thomas Cox, Jr. and he takes full legal responsibility for the content of the book. It would be purely a matter of coincidence if someone might be recognized as a character in this book: “Yet Untitled” …unless, that is, you happened to be important. LOL!
DEDICATION
To My Beloved Mother
Mary Catherine Simpson Cox
April 15, 1922-November 7, 1988
Though you passed on November 7, 1988 and it is now thirty (30) years, I still hold you close to my heart as Mother and dearest friend and, it is your love which precludes me from suffering the world’s greatest tragedy for a human…not to have been loved at all or to have been a willing participant in the creation of six beautiful children!
THE ACCIDENT
He remembered the panic in her eyes as the cars collided; she had run a stop sign… crossing a major highway. She looked like one of his children and he wanted to reach out to say, it’s going to be okay. He saw metal crushing in slow motion as he was thrown into the steering wheel and his knees ripping through the dashboard. Hamilton remembered the impact with the windshield and the thought that he could not die this way… he had too much to do!
There was a flurry of motion around him but Hamilton was drifting… he was at peace, not unlike going to sleep but more blissful and aware. There was no pain now in the minutes after the accident, just an animated sense of withdrawal into the nether world… or that place which threatens to compromise life as it was known. On the platform waiting for the next train and regretting or wandering of the one you missed, one of the quintessential life lessons…some follow it; some fear it; others treat it as a responsibility or a burden to bare and march steadfastly forward onto each platform without question as to direction, priority or the more suttle questions of community!
But this platform was marked with several signs pointing in various directions: African/American; Major/Minor, Chinese / American; Major / Minor, English / American; Major / Minor, French / American; Major / Minor, German / American; Major / Minor, Indian / American; Major / Minor, Irish / American; Major / Minor, Japanese / American; Major / Minor, Russian / American; Major / Minor. Hamilton was confused; bewildered; frightened and yes… to answer the pivotal question which haunts every living person: was he most afraid of dying…or of knowing that he was dead!
He was about to follow his heritage when a garishly dressed elderly lady with a monkey on her shoulder strode leisurely by and whispered to him, “Take the road less traveled!” she said to him while handing him a sheet of paper.
“Who wrote that line you just used? Don’t you know, madam, you must always give credit where credit is due?” he said.
“My name is Sarah in the Sky… there is no credit here, just deeds!” she said, “but if you insist on giving credit, it’s a bit of Frost!”
“Now there you go again, Sarah in The Sky is a song, and you are taking advantage of me because I am …”
“Gone!” she said.
Before he could finish Sarah and her monkey grabbed his hand and began to dance around and around as they sang…, “are you blue, too much to do, I don’t know the reasons why, I’m just Sarah in The Sky!”
“Please, please he said, I must find my way.” He said while looking at the note.
“But at my back I always hear
Time’s winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity”
“There you go again… taking these great liberties with the work of others, but I remember this one, its Marvell, Andrew Marvell. Sarah, you must give credit where credit is due!”
“Marvell, Marvell all around, like grease and oil on the town. Monkey see/ Monkey do/ I have something new for you… Sarah in the Sky! Now is that credit Mr. Hamilton and what do I get for it… when what I need is deeds!” she spoke in a very quick fashion, sort of like William F. Buckley, except she didn’t have all his facial expressions, nor the use of the tongue for pause sake…or multisyllable words.
Hamilton thought she probably could not use more than a two syllable word, and she and this monkey where beginning to get annoying; but she was all he had… here at this intersection, and then he remembered she had spoken his name…and clearly stated that he was dead, or was it gone?”
“Wait a minute, Sarah, how do you know my name? And, I guess you also know my mother’s name is Sarah as well… and, that we are from Indianapolis, Indiana?” he said.
“I know your mother Sarah. I know her very well. I’ve waited a lifetime now, to keep her out of ….well! Oh! Oh, that’s so ugly and I promised not to say… that I wouldn’t use that word again, and I've already used it… yet today!” Sarah spoke in the cadence of an aspiring street poet but her voice had the ring/rang chatter of fun and frivolity, mixed with a sense of wanting, and also of needing to be someplace else in a hurry.
“Now look, Hamilton, it’s been nice talking to you, but it’s time to play the game. Say the magic word and you win the monkey… and you can go away.” she said.
“There it is again. I know that one. Can’t you be original? It’s “Here’s Groucho”… Groucho Marx!” he shouted.
Then Sarah seemed to begin to wilt; she became subdued and she said quietly to Hamilton, “Sarah in the Sky is waiting here… for your mother, Sarah to die. I am her mentor; I get a deed for that duty, a deed that I need and I can move from the Minors. You have no mentor…you have no reason for being in this world…you are an aberration!” she said.
“Sarah, I am here because I am dead…you said…” Hamilton felt himself beginning to feel the emotion. An emotion he had stifled since he was a small child. Big boys don’t cry…you know!
“Please tell me why you are playing this wicked game. Please stop… this game is painful! I won’t say a word about credit. But, my mother is worth more than deeds or credits…this woman is a saint Sarah…a home run for you if you are her mentor! But…if I am dead…doesn’t that mean that you have been waiting for me?”
“Well, you are dead…but you are not gone Hamilton… and the game that you must play is finding a deed, not a credit… to get you to the Majors and/ as soon as your mother, Sarah joins me, I’ll be on my way to the Majors!”
“You mean to the community called Irish/American Major?” he said.
“Oh no, when you get to the Majors, everybody wears a pin stripe; there is no need for personal identification. We all start with imperfections; living is one of those. We all must learn… to live life down! That is the reason that you are not gone Hamilton…your life has epitomized credit! Here, there are no I’s; there are no we’s; there are no me’s. There is no room for narcissism. Human potential and all its vain insidious effort at self-aggrandizement is as forgotten here as is…” she paused…
“Credit!” she said.
No sooner had she uttered the word ‘credit’…Sarah’s image became more and more ashen…and then she was gone!
Hamilton was so very relaxed, floating toward some place or space, perhaps Irish/American?
“Don’t forget, it’s your place, not mine; hurry back…hurry back… you’ve much to do before your time!”
He